GEO 436 ISLAMABAD: The dead body of the Pakistani student who was killed in Kyrgyzstan ethnic riots has not yet been brought home while Pakistani government has initiated efforts to secure safe recovery of 14 other Pakistani students taken hostage. The worst ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan has so far claimed over 100 lives. This time Pakistan has also become victim of the ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan that has only intensified over the past two decades. The Pakistan Foreign Office has stated that every possible step is being taken for the safe release of the students. The death of a Pakistani student hailing from Jhang in the Kyrgyzstan violence has panicked the parents of hundreds of other students studying in various Kyrgyzs universities. Some of the students had already returned to Pakistan in the wake of ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan. Around 1,200 Pakistanis, mostly students, live in Kyrgyzstan, although many of them have returned to Pakistan for summer vacations, Qureshi said. Universities in the former Soviet states are attractive to many Pakistanis for their cheaper training in medical and engineering fields. Obaid Ansari, who studies medicine in Osh, said he fled the city and returned to Pakistan shortly after riots broke out. “I am receiving text messages from my colleagues and friends that have taken refuge in basements. They informed me that 15 have been abducted,” Ansari said by telephone from his hometown of Jacobabad. “I and four of my friends managed to flee as we were outside Osh when trouble started. When we returned, there was fire all over,” he said, adding the situation in Osh was “very dangerous”. The interim government of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet republic hosting US and Russian military bases, gave its security forces shoot-to-kill powers after deadly riots between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Osh and Jalalabad. Osh is a stronghold of former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was toppled in riots in April. Interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva has accused supporters of Bakiyev, who is in exile in Belarus, of stoking ethnic conflict. Bakiyev has denied any role in the riots.
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